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The Truce Got Broken: Negotiating with Hamas is Impossible

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Fiamma Nirenstein
Fiamma Nirenstein is a journalist, author, former Deputy President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Italian Chamber of
… [More]Deputies, and member of the Italian delegation at the Council of Europe. [Less]

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Although the logic suggested the opposite, Israel was certainly expecting it. When yesterday at three in the afternoon Hamas broke the truce, seven hours before its conclusion and possible renewal, and three missiles exploded in the South, people who had returned home in their kibbutz could already find buses set to bring mothers and children back again to their uncles, grandfathers, and other fellow kibbutzim.

The F-16 took off and dropped bombs. Perhaps another truce will be established soon, another attempt by Hamas to raise the price, since a war of attrition is the last thing Netanyahu wants, and ground troops entering Gaza is the second last. But the past, present, and future are contained in this umpteenth grimace Hamas is doing in the first place to Egypt and Fatah, which in Cairo committed at least to another ceasefire. The reasons of the breaking are temporary and basic: Hamas wants the opening of the borders and to be given a port and an airport, while Egypt and Israel at the very least want Abu Mazen to be in control of the entry and the exit of money and commodities which can be transformed in rockets and tunnels, as well as poverty for people.

The refusal, decided by Khaled Meshaal with the very active support of Qatar, will cost again dead and wounded, destruction instead of reconstruction, more misery and unemployment, as rockets are being launched from hospitals and houses in order to draw the fire right on the people.

Is all that convenient to an organization whose tunnels, weapons, and facilities already suffered enormous damages? The rational response would be no, but Hamas is irrational and religious. Hamas will never accept a secular agreement, nor can it be expected from ISIS in Iraq or Jabat Al Nusra in Syria. It can take a vacation, but then it will come back with more weapons and bloodthirst. Deterrence is the only possibility for some temporary peace. How does Hamas now see itself, and what is its nature? Hamas was founded by Sheikh Yassin on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood to destroy Israel and plant the seed of the Islamic State that will restore the Caliphate, likewise at Muhammad’s times.

The same territorial Islamic Ummah, the same laws, the same power, the same brutality towards the infidels. For Hamas, the Palestinian problem cannot be addressed by creating a Palestinian state, but by fighting the “occupation” (which in Gaza does not exist since 2005) in the same way as the other Sunni movements which are fighting their “occupants” (also and especially Muslims, but traitors).

As a matter of fact, Hamas hates Fatah too, and we saw that when it killed its members in 2007, while the remainders, in practice, are still held captive. Just two days ago, a large Hamas terrorist infrastructure has been discovered, which was planning to topple Abu Mazen and carry out attacks in Israel.

Hamas pictures itself as a great victor: when Egypt had almost forced it to accept an agreement that acknowledged its defeat, Kerry overturned the table, introducing Qatar and Turkey in the negotiation: that is, the United States is not with Egypt and Israel, the Muslim Brotherhood front has regained strength, Europe is putting itself to shame with hundreds of anti-Semite manifestations, the UN condemns Israel. Hamas believes that things can only go better and better. Certainly, the fact that its people are dying is only a benefit for it.

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